The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government on Thursday announced that it will give Rs 5 lakh compensation to the families of the two persons killed in police firing in Mangaluru during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act last week, PTI reported.
A day earlier, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had withdrawn the ex-gratia amount of Rs 10 lakh announced for the families. The chief minister had added that “giving criminals ex-gratia is an unpardonable crime in itself”.
Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of not keeping its promises, adding that a Trinamool delegation would visit Karnataka soon to meet the families of those killed in the police firing and hand over the money amount to them.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh said Banerjee was “playing politics over dead bodies”. “When more than 11 persons were killed in Darjeeling during the 2017 Gorkhaland statehood agitation, did representatives of the TMC government visit the victims or give them any compensation,” Ghosh asked. “No. The TMC is only busy doing politics over dead bodies and wants to fuel unrest.”
The Yediyurappa-led government in Karnataka also criticised her decision, saying it was a gesture to woo Muslim community and create polarisation in the state.
‘Gesture to woo Muslims’: BJP
Karnataka BJP General Secretary Shobha Karandlaje said hundreds of political workers had died in various protests in West Bengal and asked if Banerjee had given compensation to their respective families. “What you [Mamata Banerjee] have to do with the protests that happened in Karnataka. Protests have taken place in your state too, just to woo a community, to create polarisation in the country, you are doing such things,” she alleged.
Karandlaje, a member of Parliament, maintained that the state government has only put the compensation on hold and has not withdrawn it. She claimed it will be given once it is proven that the two victims are innocent. “We want to ensure whether the dead are innocent, or they were among those who wanted to cause disturbance and destroy public property,” she said.
The BJP leader said it has emerged through video footage that the Mangaluru violence was a “systematic conspiracy and intentional”.
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